This invention relates to wireless communication systems and, in particular, to a priority incoming call alerting system that automatically alerts the wireless subscriber of the presence of a priority incoming call from a calling party, yet routes all non-priority calls to a call coverage point, with the priority incoming call alerting feature being either activated as a function of the location of the subscriber or manually activated by the subscriber.
It is a problem in communication systems, such as wireless communication systems, to provide the wireless subscriber with an indication of the presence of a priority incoming call from a calling party, where this call screening function is activated as a function of the present activity or location of the subscriber. Existing wireless communication systems process each incoming call to completion regardless of the level of importance of the incoming call or the present location or activity of the subscriber. A significant problem with this operation is that the subscriber, who is awaiting receipt of an important incoming call, must either manually screen all incoming calls to identify the priority of the incoming call or make use of a secretarial call screening service to identify the priority incoming call.
The use of a secretarial call screening service requires that the incoming call be answered and screened by the staff of the secretarial call screening service to identify a priority level for the incoming call. The secretarial service must then determine whether this incoming call should be immediately forwarded to the subscriber, based on the instructions of the subscriber. If so, the secretarial call screening service records a message to identify the calling party, the nature of the calling party""s request, the calling party""s telephone number and then forwards a message to the subscriber, typically via a pager, and the subscriber must return the received call. This process is inefficient, time consuming, and prone to errors in the message transcription and relaying functions. This process also cannot track the changing location and/or activities of the subscriber and the associated change in the privacy needs of the subscriber.
The subscriber manual call screening option is equally undesirable in that the wireless subscriber is interrupted by every incoming call, even when the wireless subscriber is engaged in an activity that takes priority over the incoming call, or the interruption is socially inappropriate. Thus, wireless subscribers should not be interrupted when they are located in a place of worship, restaurants, movie theaters, engaged in important meetings, and the like. For example, when a physician is in conference with a patient in a hospital room, the physician should not be interrupted by an incoming call on their wireless communication device unless the physician needs to be available to receive an emergency call. However, existing wireless communication systems cannot identify the present location and/or activities of a wireless subscriber in terms of the subscriber""s need for privacy, and process incoming calls as a function of this desired privacy in view of the priority of the incoming call.
The above described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present priority incoming call alerting system for a wireless communication system that functions to automatically identify the subscriber""s need for privacy in terms of the present location of a wireless subscriber or the subscriber""s manually indicated preference, and process incoming calls as a function of this desired privacy and the priority of the incoming call.
This is accomplished by providing a wireless communication system with a priority incoming call alerting system that includes call priority identification apparatus and optionally subscriber location identifying apparatus to thereby enable the wireless communication system to automatically screen incoming calls that are directed to the wireless subscriber and only alert the subscriber of the presence of a priority incoming call from a calling party, yet routes all non-priority calls to a call coverage point. The present description uses a hospital based wireless communication system as a well known example of a communication environment in which the present priority incoming call alerting system is operational. The priority incoming call alerting system functions to identify various locales in the hospital environs in which the call alerting system should be automatically activated. In particular, patient rooms, operating rooms, and the like can be designated as privacy environments in which incoming calls to a subscriber""s wireless communication device are not processed unless the incoming call has assigned thereto a predetermined priority. The activation of this capability can be effected in numerous ways, including the use of a low power infrared transmitter located in the selected privacy environments which activate the subscriber""s wireless communication device to enter the call screening mode. This mode setting can also be accomplished by the wireless subscriber manually activating the wireless communication device to select this call screening feature. The activation of this call screening feature is transmitted to the wireless communication system so that incoming calls directed to that wireless communication device can be screened for the appropriate priority level.